Job 15:14 - Exposition

What is man, that he should be clean? A vain "beating of the air." Eliphaz had asserted the same truth in his first speech, when he said, "Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his Maker? Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he taxeth with folly: how m u ch less in them that dwell in houses of clay ' whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?" ( Job 4:17-19 ); and Job had given his full assent to it, when he exclaimed, "I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God? If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand" ( Job 9:2 , Job 9:3 ). The true question was not whether Job or any other man was" clean," i.e. wholly sinless ' but whether Job had sinned so deeply and grievously that his sufferings were the natural and just punishment for his sins. And a mere repetition of the statement that all men were sinful and unclean was off the point—nihil ad rem- altogether futile and superfluous. And he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? (setup. Job 25:4 ). The clause is a mere variant of the preceding one.